An end-of-season awards piece, though, is not the forum for such weighty discussions. There will be time to ponder bigger problems during the long months between now and preseason. For now, let us celebrate the best of the action on the field in what turned out to be another very entertaining season.

MVP/Offensive Player of the Year/Comeback Player of the Year

The Associated Press voters found a way to split up these awards, naming Peyton Manning as the Comeback Player of the Year but Adrian Peterson as Offensive Player of the Year and MVP. Instinctively, that felt like a fair way to go – ensuring that Manning got due recognition for his remarkable return from neck surgery. Playing for a new team after a full year out of the game, Manning posted the second-highest passer rating of any starting quarterback in the NFL and led Denver to a 13-3 record.

But when I take each of these awards individually, I find myself leaning towards Peterson as the most deserving winner of all three. Falling just nine yards short of Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record makes the Vikings running back more than worthy of the Offensive Player of the Year award. Doing so within a year of a knee injury that could have ended his career renders him a pretty compelling choice for Comeback Player of the Year. Carrying his team into the playoffs even when opponents were gearing their entire defense to slowing him down – knowing that quarterback Christian Ponder would not beat them – makes him the only choice, in my opinion, for MVP.

So I'm giving Adrian Peterson all three. And let's not start with the Calvin Johnson campaign either. As brilliant a player as Megatron clearly is, his statistics this season feel rather meaningless when placed in the context of a Detroit team who seemed to have made padding out his numbers their main focus long before the end.

Defensive Player of the Year

At times the fawning over JJ Watt has got a little out of hand. In October the Houston Texans defensive co-ordinator Wade Phillips advised reporters that Watt was destined for the Hall of Fame – an absurdly premature comment for a player who had barely played 20 games in the NFL.

Nevertheless, Watt did enjoy a remarkable year, racking up 20.5 sacks and batting down 16 passes at the line. Only one other player – Denver's Von Miller – received even a single vote for the AP award; San Francisco's Aldon Smith tailed off badly at the end of the year. In any case, I tend to feel the latter gets a slightly easier ride, with his team-mate Justin Smith drawing a lot of double teams on the other side of the line.

Rookie of the Year

An unbelievably tough category, with three quarterbacks – Robert Griffin III, Russell Wilson and Andrew Luck – performing to startlingly high levels and Redskins running back Alfred Morris rushing for 1,613 yards on a 4.8 average. The AP voters went with RG3, but frankly I think this one comes down to nothing more than personal opinion.

For me, the deciding factor is strength of schedule. Wilson faced two of the NFL's top five pass defenses – San Francisco and Arizona (check the stats before you scoff at that last one) – twice each as a result of playing in the NFC West, as well as facing tough games against the Jets, Bears and Packers. He absolutely torched the 49ers late in the year. Injury permitting, all three can go on to have special careers, but for now Russell Wilson is my pick of the bunch.

Coach of the Year

John Harbaugh has not always won the same plaudits as his younger brother, Jim. The latter has done an incredible job, transforming the 49ers from a team who had not been to the playoffs in almost a decade to one that reached the NFC title game last season and went one step further this time around. But it's time to give a little love to his older sibling, whose 63 wins (between the playoffs and regular season) over the last five years are matched only by Bill Belichick. John Harbaugh is 9-4 in the postseason over that spell, where the New England coach is 3-4.

Of course, this is not a lifetime achievement award, and should only really relate to what he has achieved this year. Winning the Super Bowl after sparking the Ravens to life with a change of offensive co-ordinator as late as mid-December? Yup, that'll do it.

Story of the Year

There was no shortage of compelling narratives in the NFL this season, from the replacement refereeing saga through to Ray Lewis's retirement tour. But the most affecting by far was that of Chuck Pagano's battle with leukemia. The manner in which Indianapolis rallied around their head coach – from the Chuckstrong campaign right through to cheerleaders shaving their heads in a show of solidarity – was moving. Pagano's success in beating the illness, just like he said he would, in time to lead his team into the playoffs might as well have fallen from the script of a Hollywood movie.

It could not have happened without the incredible work of offensive co-ordinator Bruce Arians, who led the Colts to a 9-3 record as interim head coach in Pagano's absence. He was rewarded with the AP Coach of the Year award, and also landed a job as the Arizona Cardinals' new head coach.

Game of the Year

Colin Kaepernick had already played pretty well in his first four starts for the 49ers, but it was not until his four-touchdown performance in a brilliant 41-34 win over the New England Patriots in Foxboro that the world really sat up and took notice. The Patriots played their part that day too, recovering a 28-point deficit to tie the game at 31-31, only to let it slip away at the end.

Best Half-Time Show

Lifetime achievement award

The obvious person would be Ray Lewis, who for all the controversies does undoubtedly walk away as one of the greatest linebackers ever to have played the game. To have performed at the level he has for 17 years is remarkable. But the player I want to recognize here is Atlanta's Tony Gonzalez – who is also expected to retire this offseason after 16 seasons in the league.

Only one man in NFL history has caught more passes than Gonzalez – Jerry Rice. The next tight end, Shannon Sharpe, is more than 400 receptions behind. Gonzalez might one day be surpassed in the record books by Jason Witten, presently third on the list and with a good few years ahead of him, but if so it will only be because Gonzalez opened offensive co-ordinators' eyes to the mismatches that a player with such attributes could create.

It would have taken a heart of stone not to be moved by the image of Gonzalez tearing up after finally winning his first playoff game at the age of 36. His team-mates are begging him to return for one more year, but if he does decide to walk away now he will be remembered with nothing but respect and admiration.

NFL Talkboard champion

Well, I've kept you waiting – but it is time at last for the awards you really care about. As you already know, Pickelhaube1914 and term1011 were named joint-champions of our regular season Pick Six competition. So now I ask you to please be upstanding for Cameldancer – the winner of our Pick the Playoffs competition, who nailed an impressive 10 of 11 predictions over the postseason. Admittedly, the last of those picks did seem somewhat reluctant.

I can also confirm that we do now have a stand-alone overall champion. Hats off, and maybe even thrown – carefully – up in the air, for Pickelhaube1914, who followed up an impressive regular season by going nine of 11 through the playoffs – finishing with an overall score of 70 out of a possible 112. This was a resounding victory: nobody else got more than 66.

Full standings for all three competitions will be posted below the line shortly. Otherwise all that remains is to thank you for reading and taking part. It has been a pleasure to read all the measured and informed debate below the line all year. And also to admire the honesty of readers correcting me when I have awarded them too many points in the standings; long may it continue.